Varna Monastery is a large preserved early medieval monastery complex, opened near Varna, Bulgaria, with the status of a cultural monument of national importance for Bulgaria since 2015. [1]
Varna Monastery is a large preserved early medieval monastery complex, opened near Varna, Bulgaria, with the status of a cultural monument of national importance for Bulgaria since 2015. [1]
Varna Monastery, the Royal Monastery of the Holy Mother of God - Varna, dates from the 9th century and probably as the Ravna Monastery was burnt by the Pechenegs during the invasions of the Bulgarian Lands in the 11th century, and according to other sources, it existed until the 18th century or until the beginning of the Bulgarian Revival. [2]
Found by Karel Shkorpil in 1921 on the Franga Plateau just above the city itself. Located in the most appropriate location on the plateau with view and water source.
Studied in detail from 1996 until today by students in the specialty "archeology" at the Veliko Tarnovo University, as well as from the UK, Russia, Germany and Italy.
A cathedral church, a chapel tower, a huge scriptorium, a library, a school, a monastic dormitory, a holy shrine were found, and among the finds are an altar table, a blacksmith's workshop and coins – Bulgarian, Raška, Venetian, Byzantine, Ottoman. The buildings are filled with a opus mixtum, which construction equipment is used mainly for representative buildings, for example, the Great Basilica, Pliska.
In the area of the monastery was found the seal of Boris I of Bulgaria, two lead seals of Tsar Simeon the Great and the seal of Tsar Peter I of Bulgaria.
The Varna Monastery and the Ravna Monastery are considered the most significant literary centers of the Preslav Literary School outside the capitals Pliska and Preslav. The patron of the monastery is the Mother of God, who is also the patron saint of the city of Varna.
Boris I, venerated as Saint Boris I (Mihail) the Baptizer, was the ruler (knyaz) of the First Bulgarian Empire from 852 to 889. Despite a number of military setbacks, the reign of Boris I was marked with significant events that shaped Bulgarian and European history. With the Christianization of Bulgaria in 864, paganism was abolished. A skillful diplomat, Boris I successfully exploited the conflict between the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Papacy to secure an autocephalous Bulgarian Church, thus dealing with the nobility's concerns about Byzantine interference in Bulgaria's internal affairs.
Varna Province, formerly known as Varna okrug, is a province in eastern Bulgaria, one of the 28 Bulgarian provinces. It comprises 12 municipalities with a population of 494,216 as of April 2016. The province is named after its administrative centre, Varna.
Naum, also known as Naum of Ohrid or Naum of Preslav, was a medieval Bulgarian writer and missionary among the Slavs, considered one of the Seven Apostles of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was among the disciples of Cyril and Methodius and is associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic script. Naum was among the founders of the Pliska Literary School. Afterwards Naum worked at the Ohrid Literary School. He was among the first saints declared by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church after its foundation in the 9th century. The mission of Naum played significant role by transformation of the local Early Slavs into Bulgarians.
The Preslav Literary School, also known as the "Pliska Literary School" or "Pliska-Preslav Literary school" was the first literary school in the medieval First Bulgarian Empire. It was established by Boris I in 886 in Bulgaria's capital, Pliska. In 893, Simeon I moved the seat of the school from the First Bulgarian capital Pliska to the new capital, Veliki Preslav. Preslav was captured and burnt by the Byzantine Emperor John I Tzimisces in 972 in the aftermath of Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church, legally the Patriarchate of Bulgaria, is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox jurisdiction based in Bulgaria. It is the first medieval recognised patriarchate outside the Pentarchy and the oldest Slavic Orthodox church, with some 6 million members in Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2 million members in a number of other European countries, Asia, the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. It was recognized as autocephalous in 1945 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The modern Veliki Preslav or Great Preslav, former Preslav, is a city and the seat of government of the Veliki Preslav Municipality, which in turn is part of Shumen Province, Bulgaria. Veliki Preslav is situated at an altitude of 132 m.
Pliska was the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the Middle Ages and is now a small town in Shumen Province, on the Ludogorie plateau of the Danubian Plain, 20 km northeast of the provincial capital, Shumen.
Provadia is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Varna Province, located in a deep karst gorge along the Provadiya River not far from the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is the administrative centre of Provadia Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 12,901.
Shumen is the tenth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and economic capital of Shumen Province.
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval state that existed in Southeastern Europe between the 7th and 11th centuries AD. It was founded in 680–681 after part of the Bulgars, led by Asparuh, moved south to the northeastern Balkans. There they secured Byzantine recognition of their right to settle south of the Danube by defeating – possibly with the help of local South Slavic tribes – the Byzantine army led by Constantine IV. During the 9th and 10th century, Bulgaria at the height of its power spread from the Danube Bend to the Black Sea and from the Dnieper River to the Adriatic Sea and became an important power in the region competing with the Byzantine Empire.
The medieval Bulgarian royal charters are some of the few surviving secular documents of the Second Bulgarian Empire, and were issued by five tsars roughly between 1230 and 1380. The charters are written in Middle Bulgarian using the Early Cyrillic alphabet.
The painting of the Tarnovo Artistic School was the mainstream of the Bulgarian fine arts between 13th and 14th centuries named after the capital and the main cultural center of the Second Bulgarian Empire, Tarnovo.
Medieval Bulgarian literature is Bulgarian literature in the Middle Ages.
Karel Václav Škorpil was a Czech-Bulgarian archaeologist and museum worker credited along with his brother Hermann with the establishment of those two disciplines in Bulgaria.
The Great Basilica of Pliska is an architectural complex in Pliska, the first capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, which includes the cathedral, an archbishop's palace and a monastery. The basilica was constructed on the orders of the knyaz of Bulgaria, Boris I, after his baptism in 864 and the resultant Christianization of Bulgaria. Completed around 875, the basilica was 102.5 metres (336 ft) long and 30 metres (98 ft) wide.
The Round Church, also known as the Golden Church or the Church of St John, is a large partially preserved early medieval Eastern Orthodox church. It lies in Preslav, the former capital of the First Bulgarian Empire, today a town in northeastern Bulgaria. The church dates to the early 10th century, the time of Tsar Simeon I's rule, and was unearthed and first archaeologically examined in 1927–1928.
Saint Clementof Ohrid was one of the first medieval Bulgarian saints, scholar, writer, and apostle to the Slavs. He was one of the most prominent disciples of Cyril and Methodius and is often associated with the creation of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts, especially their popularisation among Christianised Slavs. He was the founder of the Ohrid Literary School and is regarded as a patron of education and language by some Slavic people. He is considered to be the first bishop of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, one of the Seven Apostles of Bulgarian Orthodox Church since the 10th century, and one of the premier saints of modern Bulgaria. The mission of Clement was the crucial factor which transformed the Slavs in then Kutmichevitsa into Bulgarians. Clement is also the patron saint of North Macedonia, the city of Ohrid and the Macedonian Orthodox Church.
The People's Council of Preslav took place in 893. It was among the most important events in the history of the First Bulgarian Empire and was a cornerstone of the Christianization of Bulgaria under prince Boris I.
This is a list of people, places, and events related to the medieval Bulgarian Empires — the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), and the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396).
The Shumen Fortress is an archaeological site overlooking the city of Shumen in north-eastern Bulgaria.